God, he thought, closing his eyes. I love her.
And somebody had just threatened to kill her.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
TESS HAD BARELY arrived home from work Thursday when Zach showed up. He’d called midafternoon and said, “I’ll bring a pizza for dinner. Six o’clock.”
When she’d stuttered, “Wait...w-why?” all the answer she got was “Later.”
Now she peered out cautiously and saw that he had abandoned his usual skulking. His new truck was parked in her drive and, in broad daylight, he was walking up to her door carrying an extra-large pizza box.
His expression was as closed as she’d ever seen it.
“What’s wrong?”
He shook his head. “Let’s eat. I never stopped for lunch.”
Barely vanquishing her curiosity, Tess led the way to the kitchen where she set out plates as Zach tore a couple of paper towels off the roll in lieu of napkins. He chose a bottle of beer she had kept in the refrigerator for him and she poured a glass of white wine.
As they ate, she felt compelled to fill the silence. Or was it to talk him down?
She found herself making a funny story out of the young woman who’d come in to the store to browse wallpaper books, bringing two preschoolers with her.
They’d sat still for about thirty seconds before pulling books from the shelves. Mom didn’t seem to notice. That got boring, so they went out into the main showroom, where they hid from each other behind racks of carpet samples. They ran laps.
Mom didn’t even seem to notice how many wallpaper books were heaped on the floor. She picked more out and slowly leafed through them, also not noticing that her children had disappeared from the small room.
Tess had the pleasure of seeing some of the tension on Zach’s face ease and a smile curl one side of his mouth. “So you got to babysit. Sounds like my job some days.”
“Yes, and you want to know the kicker?” Tess was still mad. “I asked if she wanted to borrow any of the books and she said she’d written down the information she needed to price the wallpaper online. She didn’t even apologize!”
“Can she order the same wallpapers you sell online for cheaper?”
Tess’s mood plummeted. “Probably. They don’t have to pay overhead for a store that can hold a huge selection of samples.”
“And a playground,” he said almost straight-faced.
She huffed.
He laughed, which helped.
“If she comes again,” he said, “I’ll bet you won’t be anywhere near as nice about her hellions.”
“You’d better believe it.” Watching as he took his fourth slice of pizza, she judged the time to be right. “Are you going to tell me what had you so grim when you got here?”
He set the pizza down on his plate, wiped his fingers with a paper towel as if to give himself a moment, then met her eyes. “Yeah. I’ll tell you.”
When he was done, she didn’t know what to say. Even what she felt. She discovered she was rubbing goose bumps on her arms. Did that mean she was afraid? Yes, she thought, but it wasn’t only that. It was knowing, absolutely for sure, that someone was watching her through a telephoto lens that allowed him to see her as if he was only a few feet away. He had photographed her when she’d had no idea she was being watched.
“I feel violated,” she said at last. “My skin is crawling.”
Zach watched her. “We knew they were probably keeping an eye on both of us.”
“Yes, but—” She shuddered. “This makes it real. Are they watching all the time? Do I dare glance out my window? And...there’s no way to protect myself from a high-powered rifle.”
“No.” It was the first time she’d ever seen emotions so naked on his face. His fear and frustration turned his voice into a growl and darkened his eyes. “If it were short-term, I’d push you to take a vacation. But this could drag on for a year or more.”
“Do you trust this Sergeant Perez to do anything?”
He scrubbed a hand over his face. “Yes. But whether he can get any action out of Brown or Stokes? I don’t know.”
“What can they do?”
“They could launch a serious investigation.”